


Mythos

by TolkienGirl



Category: David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Genre: Angst, David POV, Future Fic, Gen, No Slash, POV First Person, canon character death, failed friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-08
Updated: 2016-04-08
Packaged: 2018-06-01 02:43:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6497671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TolkienGirl/pseuds/TolkienGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was too used to worship, and too little used to love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mythos

It was not by my design that the remembrance came to me, though I remained long with it after the inciting moment, turning over the past in my mind.

My sons developed the uncanny habit of begging for my own re-tellings, preferring my inferior powers to the classics—and I was borne back, almost against my will, to the days of Salem House, when Steerforth proposed a plan much the same.

I no longer chastised myself for pausing over his memory; so vivid a spirit, so blighted a mark, must necessarily occupy a broad span of mind. And though I never spoke of him to my children, nor often to Agnes, I recalled still the exhilaration of his quick, uneasy mind—how he had asked for stories because he could not sleep, how he had little interest in my comfort but a strong investment in our friendship.

He was too used to worship, and too little used to love.

I would not forget him, even to spare myself the pangs of regret over my own unwitting involvement in his transgressions. His tragedy was my teacher, a guide as rough and stumbling as my child-voice, mouthing the tales of greater minds.

Ah, Steerforth. You suffered the bright glory of a life and legend that made you, for a time, the hero of everybody's story.

You were left no hero for your own.


End file.
